Bank of America Deal to Sell CCB Shares Shows How to Profitably Do Business with China

As reported by The Wall Street Journal’s Dan Fitzpatrick and David Benoit, Bank of America Corp. bought itself some breathing room as it agreed to sell more than $8 billion of China Construction Bank Corp. stock, its second multibillion-dollar deal in a week, while recognizing a $3.3 billion gain on the sale of CCB shares. How American companies like Bank of America can profitably do business with China is the title of the kick off panel at Golden Networking‘s China Leaders Forum 2011, “How American Companies Can Plug into the Chinese Rocket-Propelled Economy?”, http://www.ChinaLeadersForum.com, October 7, New York City, forum that will examine the challenges facing American companies that want to grow and expand their business in China, the opportunities to find Chinese investment partners that can provide a much-needed capital injection while opening the Chinese market, as well as important considerations to look at so that the high-powered Chinese rocket doesn’t crash anytime soon.

CCB confirmed that Bank of America agreed to sell about 13.1 billion of its Hong Kong-listed H shares to institutional investors. The Beijing-based lender didn’t give any details about the deal but said it expects the share sale to be completed in third quarter. The buyers of the stake include Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. and its wholly owned hedge fund, Seatown, according to people familiar with matter. The two funds were part of a group of buyers that included a Chinese investment fund, the people said. It was unclear how the stake was divided up. This sale represents about half of the company’s stake in the Chinese lender. Under the deal, which was long anticipated by analysts and investors, Bank of America will continue to hold a 5% stake in China Construction Bank.